Literary Ales

Thoughts of a Reforming Pelagian

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      6 Dec 2010

      100 Influential Christian Works

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      Inspired by a note making the rounds on FaceBook I decided to create my own list of books. The title of this blog is modelled after some principles in this blog. The list is not in order of importance but rough chronology.

       

      Now as this is meant to be interactive so please leave comments. Feel free to comment as you desire but if you’d like to copy my formatting and compare the markup on the list: copy this list into the comments and:
      Embolden those books you've read in their entirety;
      Italicize the ones you either have read only an
       excerpt or started but didn't finish; 

      *Star ones you own;

      ?Question ones you’ve never heard of the title;
      ^Caret ones you’ve never heard of the author;
      At the bottom put a series of numbers summarizing your markings. 

       

      I encourage discussions on the list. What should I have included? what should I have left out? And while this post took far more work than I anticipated it’s only one blogger’s opinion; don’t get too elated if you’ve read several of these books. 

       

      Without further ado, enjoy.

       

      1 *The Bible

      2 Didache

      3 The Shepherd of Hermas

      4 Dialogue with Trypho — Justin Martyr

      5 Against Heresies — Irenaeus 

      6 De Carne Christi —Tertullian

      7 De Unitate Ecclesiae — Cyprian

      8 Ecclesiastical History — Eusebius

      9 Orations Against the Arians — Athanasius

      10 On the Holy Spirit — Basil the Great

      11 Collected Homilies — John Chrysostom

      12 *Confessions — Augustine

      13 *The City of God — Augustine

      14 Enchiridion — Augustine

      15 The Ecclesiastical History of the English People — Bede

      16 ?On Loving God — Bernard of Clairvaux

      17 Cur Deus Homo? — Anselm

      18 ?Sic et Non — Peter Abelard

      19 Four Books of Sentences — Peter Lombard

      20 Summa Theologica — Thomas Aquinas

      21 Summa Contra Gentiles — Thomas Aquinas 

      22 Divine Comedy — Dante

      23 The Cause of God Against the Pelagians — Thomas Bradwardine

      24 Imitation of Christ — Thomas à Kempis 

      25 Mirror for Christians — Dietrich Coelde

      26 Commentary on the Psalms — Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples

      27 In Praise of Folly — Desiderius Erasmus

      28 *95 Theses — Martin Luther

      29 *The Freedom of the Christian — Martin Luther

      30 *Commentary on Galatians — Martin Luther

      31 67 Theses — Ulrich Zwingli 

      32 On True and False Religion — Ulrich Zwingli

      33 *Decades — Heinrich Bullinger

      34 Loci Communes — Phillipp Melanchthon

      35 Loci Communes — Peter Martyr Vermigli

      36 *The Institutes of Christian Religion — John Calvin

      37 Commentaries — John Calvin

      38 *Treatise on Relics — John Calvin

      39 *Heidelberg Catechism — Zacharius Ursinius

      40 Icones — Theodore Beza

      41 The History of the Reformation in Scotland — John Knox

      42 The Bruised Reed — Richard Sibbs

      43 *The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment — Jeremiah Burroughs

      44 *Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices — Thomas Brooks

      45 *The Death of Death in the Death of Christ — John Owen

      46 Communion with God — John Owen

      47 *The Mortification of Sin — John Owen

      48 The Christian in Complete Armour — William Gurnall

      49 *The Sinfulness of Sin (org. Sin: that Plague of Plagues) — Ralph Venning

      50 Institutes of Elenctic Theology — Francis Turretin

      51 *Pilgrim’s Progress — John Bunyan

      52 *Grace Abounding — John Bunyan

      53 *Westminster Standards

      54 The Marrow of Modern Divinity — Edward Fisher

      55 The Crook in the Lot — Thomas Boston

      56 The Fourfold State of Man — Thomas Boston

      57 The Christian’s Reasonable Service — Wilhelmus à Brakel

      58 The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man — Hermann Witsius

      59 *Charity and its Fruits — Jonathan Edwards

      60 *Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God — Jonathan Edwards

      61 Resolutions — Jonathan Edwards

      62 The Christian Faith — Friedrich Schleiermacher

      63 History of the Reformation — J. H. Merle d’Aubigné

      64 Systematic Theology — Charles Hodge

      65 The Mystical Presence — John Nevin

      66 ?Either/Or — Søren Kierkegaard

      67 The Sickness Unto Death — Søren Kierkegaard

      68 Commentary on the Confession of Faith — A A Hodge

      69 The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible — B B Warfield

      70 The Person and Work of Christ — B B Warfield

      71 *Morning and Evening — Charles Spurgeon

      72 Lectures on Calvinism — Abraham Kuyper

      73 *Reformed Dogmatics — Herman Bavinck

      74 *Systematic Theology — Louis Berkhoff

      75 *Biblical Theology — Geerhardus Vos

      76 Pauline Eschatology — Geerhardus Vos

      77 Orthodoxy — G K Chesterton

      78 *Christianity and Liberalism — Gresham Machen

      79 Church Dogmatics — Karl Barth

      80 The Defense of the Faith — Cornelius Van Til

      81 *Mere Christianity — C S Lewis

      82 *Till We Have Faces — C S Lewis

      83 *Space Trilogy — C S Lewis

      84 The Cost of Discipleship — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

      85 *Your God is Too Small — J B Phillips

      86 The Bible and the Future — Anthony Hoekema

      87 *The Pursuit of Holiness — Jerry Bridges

      88 *Concise Theology — J I Packer

      89 *Luther: Man Between God and Devil — Heiko Oberman

      90 *The Christian Life — Sinclair Ferguson 

      91 *Children of the Living God — Sinclair Ferguson

      92 The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses — Vern Poythress

      93 *Putting Amazing Back into Grace — Michael Horton

      94 *The Valley of Vision

      95 *The Reason for God — Tim Keller

      96 *The Wages of Spin — Carl Trueman

      97 Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics — Richard Muller

      98 *The Big Picture Story Bible — David Helm

      99 *The Jesus Storybook Bible — Sally Lloyd-Jones 

      100 *Calvin — Bruce Gordon

       

      25/30/*41/?3/^0

       

      Again, have fun leaving comments. 

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      10 Jul 2009

      John Calvin: 500 years

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      Today marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth. Born Jean Cauvin, in a small town in northern France, he became the most well known and influential theologian of the second generation of Reformers.

      As many of my readers already know, Calvin fever is high this year in both popular and scholastic circles. Conferences are running in Geneva (and elsewhere) as many undertake a Protestant pilgrimage. A few new biographies have come out this year (John Calvin: A Pilgrim's Life, John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor, etc.) as well as studies, coffee table books (The Piety of John Calvin: A Collection of His Spiritual Prose, Poems, and Hymns, and a historical fiction novel (Betrayal). Undoubtedly, Calvin himself would be embarrassed by this publicity; his will directed he be buried in an unmarked grave.

      However, there is good reason to study John Calvin; he systematized Protestant theology in his The Institutes of Christian Religion; he (along with other Reformers) helped create the 'Protestant work ethic' with his teachings on vocation. Like Luther, he expounded the sovereignty of God in all things and our absolute dependence on grace for our salvation. His definition of justification in his Institutes is classic:

      Now he is justified who is reckoned in the condition not of a sinner, but of a righteous man: and for that reason, he stands firm before God's judgment seat while all sinners fall....Thus, justified before God is the man who, freed from the company of sinners, has God to witness and affirm his righteousness. In the same way, therefore, he in whose life that purity and holiness will be found which deserves a testimony of righteousness before God's throne will be said to be justified by works, or else he who, by the wholeness of his works, can meet and satisfy God's judgment. On the contrary, justified by faith is he who, excluded from the righteousness of works, grasps the righteousness of Christ through faith, and clothed in it, appears in God's sight not as a sinner but as a righteous man.

      Although John Calvin is known primarily as a great theologian, he considered himself primarily a pastor. His letter-writing was prolific, offering godly counsel and practical advice. Likewise, his sermons have also been overlooked. (Fortunately, some previously untranslated sermons are now available in English.) As we remember Calvin, let us not only remember his great contributions to systematic theology or the logic of his description of salvation; let us also remember his piety, his zeal for godliness, and passion to see Christ preached.

      As for myself, I'll read a Calvin biography this year and probably pick up a copy of his sermons on Genesis.

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    A twenty-something confessional Presbyterian writing from Tucson, Az.

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